After Merger, Doing What He Does Best

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Retail development is in Gar Herring’s blood.

Growing up in Texas, he watched his late father pioneer the development of fortress malls and become an icon in that field. Herring joined his father’s firm, MGHerring Properties, in 2004, and became president and chief executive in 2012. Together, he and his father, M.G. “Buddy” Herring Jr., weathered the peaks and valleys of commercial real estate and fought for every deal in a changing retail world.

Earlier this month, about two years after his father’s death, Gar Herring decided it was time to do things differently. He merged MGHerring into Jones Lang LaSalle, the global commercial real estate services firm. At JLL, Gar Herring is senior vice president of retail development. MGHerring still exists as a real estate owner but not as an operating company.

“MGHerring was successful in business for 40 years, but today it’s a very challenging business environment to be an entrepreneurial, private developer,” Herring said. “That’s a tough business model. I enjoyed running my own company, but I’ve always had a passion for development and redevelopment. Now I’m able to focus on doing that.”

Herring said he decided to move his 10 employees, himself and three retail assets to JLL because he’s always appreciated the company’s leadership, resources, collaborative process and position of dominance in several markets. “They candidly will be handling the corporate responsibilities, allowing me to focus on development and redevelopment.”

Herring said he’s already working on several potential development deals at JLL, though nothing he can announced now. In fact, his new boss, Director of Retail Development John Lambert, was on a plane Tuesday checking out some of the opportunities, Herring said.

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